1. Field
The following description relates to multi-label processing technology in a multi-protocol label switching-transport profile (MPLS-TP) network, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for processing a packet in an MPLS-TP network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to an increase in data traffic caused by the proliferation of the Internet and the combination of the wired and wireless Internet, existing complex networks have limitations to accommodate a high-quality service such as Internet protocol (IP) television (TV). Thus, methods have been researched for transmission service of providing expandability and end-to-end quality of service (QoS) using the data link layer such as MPLS-TP of the International Engineering Task Force (IETF), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.1ah (provider backbone bridges (PBB)) and IEEE802.1ag (PBB-traffic engineering (TE)).
Among the methods, an MPLS-TP network includes an ingress provider edge (PE) node that is located at a boundary point with an existing network, generates an MPLS-TP packet by attaching a label to an input packet, and forwards the generated MPLS-TP packet into an MPLS-TP network, an egress PE node that disconnects an MPLS-TP connection for transmission from the MPLS-TP network to another existing network, and a transit provider (P) node that performs a label switching function.
Due to a limitation on the size of a lookup table, an existing MPLS-TP network has a limitation on a label stack when multiple labels are stacked. In addition, when a lookup is performed for multi-label processing, stack bits need to be continuously checked to generate a label key. Furthermore, all MPLS labels, even including labels that are not used in a specific node, need to be extracted as label keys regardless of label operations such as swap, push, swap and push, and pop, which is complicated and may deteriorate performance.